Ore-reducing process



April 21, 1925.

E. KNAUER DRE REDUCING PROCESS Filed D ed. 9. 1920 INYENTOFE: 5M

Patented Apr. 21, 1925.

UNITED STATES ERNST KNAUER, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

onn-nnn-ucms Pnocnss.

Application filed December a, 1920. serie ue. 429,525.

To all whom it may coo-worn:

Be it known that I, EnNs'r KNAUER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Los An-gel'es, in the county of Los Angeles and State ofCalifornia, have invented a new and useful Ore-Reducing Process, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to processes for separating gold from other oresor sand,

and to processes for separating diifi'erent ores.

()ne object of this invention is toseparate the gold from gold-holdingsand along the beach.

Another object is to provide such a process adapted for separating gold{from the tailings in gold mines.

Another object is to provide such a process adapted for separatingcertain ores, which would destroy the compound mixture, (used in acyanideprocess for separating gold from the tailings) from the tailingsbefore the tailings reach the cyanide receptacle. l

Another object is to separate gold from beach-sand, which contains otherores besides :gold, 'by the use of the cyanide process.

Another object is to provide a process :by which precious metals may beprocured and separated from other mater tln'ough use of the cyanideprocess.

Another object is to separate ir on anagnetical-ly from gold-containingmatter "before subjected to a cyanide process.

Another object :is to dry and "heat wet matter to be dried beforepassing over magnets.

Another object is to provide igniting and burning means by whichcombustible matter can be burned and reduced tosuch an extent that acyanide process is made more effective with the remaining matter.

Other objects will appear from the .following specification and appendedclaims as well as fromthe accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is aside elevation of a device roughly outlined, a few parts being removedfrom the front so as not to cover important details in this View.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the device. This device is merelyillustrated to facilitate the description of the process disstructureand that slight modifications may be provided as long as the Wholestructure can produce the process. I

In the drawing, 3 designates a conveyor for elevating or bringing thematerial up to a suitable point. 4 is a second conveyor, preferably usedfor distributing and drying the material.

It is well known that gold-holding sand very often holds other ores atthe same time, thereby making it hard or sometimes even impossible toreduce such .ores under a cyanide process. The cyanide process ispreferably only used where no dissolvable non precious metals arepresent, since such metals tend to destroy the cyanide to suchail-extent as to make such process "too costly. The main point of thisinvention involves therefore mainly a process to reduce the ores in amanner as to make an elimination of such dissolvable non-precious metalsand materials possible before the ores reach the cyanide compartment ofsuch an ore-reducing plant or device.

Tailings are normally damp, and must be treated accordingly. Beach-sandis naturally also damp and to be treated in asimilar manner. Under suchconditions, the ore-containing or holding matter must naturally be driedwhen reduced in the manner disclosed in this application as will be morefully explained hereafter. For these several reasons I refer to a dryingof the materials in the beginning of this description.

The material is then passing under a distributing and evening knife orblade Handwheels 6 are provided for setting and controlling the blade 5a suitable distance above the conveyor elso as to allow an even amountof material to pass between the blade 5 and the conveyor 4:, Stllkl-Ilgoff the material above such level, naturally serving to control thematerial to be handled, and

facilitating the operation so that the material passes through thedevice to such an amount as to make a handling at the several differentpoints of operation possible and suitable, as far as the conditions inthe succeeding points of operations are concerned. If, for instance, thematerial is being fed at such a rate that no proper results and functioncan be obtained at asucceeding point of operation, such a feeding mustthen naturallv be so controlled and regulated by such distributing andevening ing anything in particular knife that better accomplishmentsappear possible.

Two rollers 7 are arranged a suitable distance from and below the end ofthe conveyor 4 so that the material from the conveyor can fall and passover the rollers 7.

Burners 8, preferably gas-tubes arranged above and closely disposed inrelation to the periphery of the rollers 7, serve to nite and consumecombustible matter in the may easily serve to crush the material byturning the rollers in an opposite direction tothe arrows 9 so that thematerial must pass downwardly between the rollers, as will easily beunderstood.

A conveyor 10 is disposed below the rollers 7 so as to receive thematerial from the rollers.

A second distributing and evening knife 11 is disposed in suitablerelation to the conveyor 10 to control the material passing over theconveyor 10.

Magnetized rollers 12 and 13 are disposed across the conveyor, above theconveyor so that any matter of a nature that it can be influenced bymagnets may be affected so as to accumulate on the rollers 12 and 13drawn from the material passing under the rollers 12 and 13 on theconveyor 10. The ends 1 1 of the magnetic or magnetized cores or barsare provided with suitable shafts 15 journaled in the bearings 16, seeFig. 2. The magnet-coils 17 are provided for magnetizing the bars ormembers 12 and 13, forming at the same time the support for the otherends of the members 12 and 13, the members 12 and 13 projecting towardsor into the coils.

The bars 12 and 18, being of magnetic material or magnetized by thecoils 17 naturally attract any soft iron or any other materials whichcan be attracted in such a mannor from out of the material 011 theconveyor 10. Since the members 12 and 13 retate, they naturallyaccumulate such magnetically influenced material on their whole 1surface.

To keep the bars powerful, or in other words free from such material, atleast on the underside, so as to make it possible for the bars toattract such material from the passing conveyor when the unseparatedmaterial is passing below the bars 12 and 13, magnet-cleaning means areprovided. Preferably sharp-edged bars 18 are disposed along the sides ofthe bars 12 and 13 resting against the surfaces of the bars 12 and 13 soas to scrape or remove the accumulated materials from the bars 12 and 13before the same points of the bars 12 and 13 are again turned towardsthe lower side near and above the conveyor 10 to be in a position toattract more such materials from the unseparated mass on the conveyor.

The remaining material on the conveyor 10 then passes into thereceptacle 19, which may be prepared for the cyanide or oil-flotationprocess or any other similar process for reducing gold-containing ore.

lllaterials influenced by the magnets pass from the bars 18 to crossconveyors 20 and further into another receptacle 21.

In this manner ore can be reduced so that the different substancescontained in the original material is delivered in separated form afterpassing through this device.

By letting the material pass over the rollare 7 when putting tinematerial, tailing or fine beach sand, through the device; or byreversing the turning direction of the rollers and forcing the materialsthrough between the rollers, when putting coarser materials undertreatment through this device, an even, fine or suitable stream ofmaterial is allowed to fall upon the next conveyor 10. A similarstriking, distributing, or layercqualizing is accomplished by the blade11. In this manner the handling of ore can be so controlled that asuitable amount of material in suitable form can be provided at theseveral points of operations to facilitate the proper separating andreducing of the ore.

The rollers 7 are preferably hollow for eventual heating and dryingpurposes in addition to the drying by the burners 8. A heating plate 22is provided under the conveyor 1 for drying especial wet ore-containingsand before reaching the layer-equalizing blade 5 and before passingunder the burners 8. Combustible matter is naturally consumed under theburners 8, and, to facili tate a separating of theore, a suitable fan 23is provided sidewise of the rollers 7 in a position to blow ashes andcombustible matter from the conveyer and rollers before the materialpasses under the magnets.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. An ore-reducing process consisting in first subjecting wet ore todrying, then striking oil an even layer of ore, then subjecting this dryand evenly conveyed material to open flames for burning combustiblematter and at the same time fanning across the path of the burning andconveyed material so as to eliminate waste from such combustible matter,then separating matter from the ore n'iagnetically.

2. An ore-reducing process consisting in i first subjecting Wet ore todrying, then striking off an even layer of ore, then subjecting this dryand evenly conveyed material to a treatment under open flames forigniting and burning combustible matter and at the same time subjectingthe material to a fanning treatment for removing the Waste from thecombustible matter, then striking off an even layer of material, and

subjecting this even layer to magnetic sep- 10 arators.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed myname in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

ERNST KNAUER.

Witnesses:

O'rro H. KRUEGER, JESSIE A. MANOGK.

